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| Rudolf Sieber, Tamara Matul, Marlene Dietrich, Josef von Sternberg at Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 1934 |
An androgynous woman gazes into the camera lens. What does her expression convey? The mustachioed man beside her glances tensely in the same direction, while the sharp-jawed woman behind her stares ahead--perhaps at a boxing match? Only the thin-lipped man in the back appears to be thoroughly at ease and enjoying his surroundings. Who are our players in this frame?
Marlene Dietrich with her director
Josef von Sternberg and her husband
Rudolf Sieber ("Rudi") with his mistress
Tamara Matul ("Tami") at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. The caption accompanying this image, which was published in
the September 1934 issue of the fan magazine Modern Screen, makes no secret of these people's identities, but only one relationship is clearly indicated--the marriage between Rudi and Marlene. Readers would have known Von Sternberg, but this mystery woman, Tamara Matul, would have eluded them. She is presented without explanation as if she were a star of Marlene's caliber when she--in reality--stood in Marlene's shadow as Rudi's lifelong mistress. If you thought people were only granted fame for doing nothing in the 21st century, here a woman is immortalized in print during the Great Depression for doing little more than being adjacent to a famous actress.
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| A clipping about the Siebers in Paris, 1933 |
In her social column published in the August 6, 1933 issue of the
Chicago Daily Tribune and the Daily News New York (European edition), Carol Weld also acknowledged Tami by name while reporting on the Sieber clan's stay at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris, referring to her as Mrs. Tamara Matul. Was "Mrs." a way to acknowledge her unofficial marriage or to throw readers off it? Whatever the case may be, Tami again received press by virtue of her vicinity to a world-renown celebrity. Even in French-language publications such as
Paris-soir, Tami basked in this attention. Here she was in the October 27, 1934 issue, erroneously called Tamarn. Poor Rudi got the shorter end of the stick, though, having been left unnamed and relegated to his role as "le mari de Marlène" [the husband of Marlene]--again a possible ploy to distract readers from his relationship with the otherwise unknown woman beside him:
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| English tennis player Fred Perry, Marlene Dietrich, Tamara Matul, and Rudolf Sieber in Palm Springs, California, 1934 |
